Entire villages in parts of Japan’s Pacific coast vanished under a wall of water, and many communities were cut off, leaving the country trying to absorb the scale of the destruction.
The police chief of Miyagi prefecture, or state, told disaster relief officials that his estimate for deaths was more than 10,000, police spokesperson Go Sugawara told The Associated Press.
Miyagi has a population of 2.3 million and is one of the three prefectures hardest hit in Friday’s disaster. Only 379 people have officially been confirmed as dead in Miyagi.
In a rare piece of good news, the defense ministry said a military helicopter on Sunday rescued a 60-year-old man floating off the coast of Fukushima on the roof of his house after being swept away in the tsunami. He was in good condition.
The US Geological Survey calculated the initial quake to have a magnitude of 8.9, while Japanese officials raised their estimate on Sunday to 9.0. Either way it was the strongest quake ever recorded in Japan. It has been followed by more than 150 powerful aftershocks.
The police chief of Miyagi prefecture, or state, told disaster relief officials that his estimate for deaths was more than 10,000, police spokesperson Go Sugawara told The Associated Press.
Miyagi has a population of 2.3 million and is one of the three prefectures hardest hit in Friday’s disaster. Only 379 people have officially been confirmed as dead in Miyagi.
In a rare piece of good news, the defense ministry said a military helicopter on Sunday rescued a 60-year-old man floating off the coast of Fukushima on the roof of his house after being swept away in the tsunami. He was in good condition.
The US Geological Survey calculated the initial quake to have a magnitude of 8.9, while Japanese officials raised their estimate on Sunday to 9.0. Either way it was the strongest quake ever recorded in Japan. It has been followed by more than 150 powerful aftershocks.
